TAG | Microsoft plays catch-up with Kidaro |
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| by Stephen Withers | |
| Tuesday, 27 May 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 2 Look at virtualisation software for Mac OS X. Parallels Desktop has a feature called Coherence, which lets it present Windows windows (if you see what I mean!) on the Mac desktop. There's no need to switch between a Windows desktop and a Mac desktop - all the programs run in one place. As a bonus, Windows applications can be included in Mac OS X's Dock for ease of launching.And as for running an app on a server while maintaining the illusion that it's actually running locally, that's part of Citrix XenDesktop. Citrix systems engineer David Rajkovic explained to iTWire that an application from the server can either be transferred to the user's PC where it runs in an "isolation environment" to prevent conflicts with locally installed software, or it can run on the server. Either way, the program appears in just another window on the user's desktop. All these products are shipping today - there's no need to wait what could be another year for Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (the future name for MDOP) to see how it could work. That said, the idea of having virtualised applications running within the normal desktop environment regardless of where and how the code is actually being executed is going to be made more attractive to those who find security in having 'one throat to choke'. If Microsoft's providing the virtualisation software, the operating systems (server and desktop) and the integration software, they'll feel there's less to go wrong. Microsoft's already sold over 6.5 million MDOP licences - it's "the fastest-selling volume licensing product in Microsoft history" according to Shanen Boettcher, general manager of Windows product management at Microsoft - and the addition of the Kidaro technology to create Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization is likely to spur even greater adoption.
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